Changeling: Session 6

When last we met, our heroes arrived home after a night at the box and began to experience all manner of even stranger strangeness…

Alia falls back to sleep after her strange nightmare and is awoken by a knock at her door.  It is Mia, a fellow working girl, and she looks incredibly rough, as though she’s not been to bed at all and is still intoxicated.  Alia lets her in.  Mia offers her a cricket (marijuana laced with meth) out of an Altoids tin, which Alia declines as she starts making breakfast.  Mia lights up and confesses to Alia that she’s afraid she’s pregnant.  After giving her grief for not using protection while working, Alia asks what she can do to help.  Mia says she’s got no money, not enough for a legitimate clinic at least, but she’ll give Alia what she’s got if she’ll do something to end the pregnancy.  Alia refuses and takes her to a free clinic after helping Mia into clothing other than her tight stained dress. 

Drake is asleep in his apartment.  He is shocked into wakefulness by the sound of automatic gunfire from outside his apartment, spraying his apartment from the street below.  Brick explodes, glass shatters, and holes are peppering his ceiling and floor.  Something ricochets and gets him in his left arm.  After what feels like an eternity, the gunfire stops and tires squeal away, followed by screams from people outside – this is not the sort of neighbourhood where drive-by shootings happen.  Drake rolls out of bed and huddles for a moment until he is sure it is over.  When he hears sirens, he scrambles to get dressed and joins the other building residents in evacuating the building.  On the street, he sees officers entering the building, one uniformed man poking his head out of Drake’s window to view the street.  An ambulance shows up, and Drake eventually gets help for his graze wound while an officer questions him.  

A plainclothes officer named Detective Matthews asks permission to look in Drake’s apartment, as he seemed to be the target, and if there is anyone who might have wanted to harm him?  Drake gives permission – he’s got nothing to hide and the laptop where he does all of his nefarious book-cooking is heavily protected and encrypted.  He makes up some story, not entirely untrue, about calling out Diggles at a bar or club, and that Diggles seemed very upset.  The cop buys the story, says Diggles has been linked to another “act of dramatic violence” recently, and that he thinks he received a big break recently – a new source, better business – something that has given him confidence to step up his game and assert himself.  Drake senses something off in the detective’s story, but goes along with it, saying that he’s got a safe place to stay with family near Buffalo.  He gives Det. Matthews his burner phone number and asks if he can get his laptop.  As the apartment is a crime scene, the detective won’t let him do it himself, but radios up to have someone bring it down.  It takes a lot longer than Drake feels is necessary, though at a brief glance, it appears to be OK.  Drake leaves, getting on a bus and making several changes throughout the borough on his way to Gareth’s loft, shaking the police that were sent after to tail him.

Meanwhile, outside Gareth’s apartment, Wally has just been struck by a taxi.  Thankfully, it was going the speed limit in a residential area, so he’s not terribly injured.  The cabbie gets out of his vehicle with a cry of, “Oh no, not again!”  Goom, still standing just outside of the alley, says that he is a paramedic and that he will attend to Wally.  Wally, of course, will have absolutely none of this, although Goom insists and does a cursory examination of Wally, noting that he’s pretty much just bruised.  The cabbie offers to take Wally to the hospital, or call paramedics, but Wally again refuses help.  He picks up his duffel bag from where it was flung across the street, dismayed to hear his entire Pyrex collection making a cacophony of brokenness.  He brings it with him anyway and begins to limp away.  At this point, Gareth and Alex have arrived streetside and Gareth tries to go after Wally.  Wally ignores Gareth’s requests to just come back inside and continues walking. 

Goom, Alex, and Gareth all return to Gareth’s loft where Goom starts to explain his bandaged face (even revealing his empty eye socket for them – Gareth grabs a beer) but says the full explanation should wait for everyone to be together. Goom sits on Gareth’s couch and begins knitting.  Alex asks what he’s making, and Goom says it is an eye patch.  Gareth is fascinated that Goom knits, and suggests a collaboration for a future art installation.

Wally gets about four blocks away, when he again feels that thrumming in the air, to his right.  He stops, partly because he’s got a stitch in his side, and looks downtown to where the skyscrapers rise.  He sees one of the buildings (he thinks it’s the Chrysler) vibrating and emanating that violet darkness, with tendrils whipping out from the top floors, reaching skyward.  “Motherfucker” he whispers as the pain in his side eases and his violet vision fades.  He looks around – no one else seemed to notice – and begins heading to his apartment. 

Morgan awakens with no incident, has a cup of tea, and checks her messages, seeing all of the back and forth from earlier in the morning and over night about the butterflies and other strange goings on.  She gets dressed and begins to make her way over to Gareth’s.  She and Drake end up arriving at the same time.  Once inside, Drake tells the tale of his morning misadventure, Goom reveals what happened with his dream and waking nightmare, and Alex tells the full story behind the butterflies at the high school.  When he mentions the part about not having a face, something odd happens – everyone in the room sees his facial features disappear.  It is only for a brief second, the blink of an eye, but it definitely happens.  Goom keeps knitting his eye patch in the green red and yellow colours symbolizing Vietnam, stitching “Death” and “Forgotten” on it.

At the free clinic, Mia is refused service, as she is too inebriated to give consent, and there is a good chance that she would lose a lot of blood as a result of said inebriation.  Alia tries to convince them otherwise, but they are steadfast.  She is given the third degree about how serious this procedure is, how critical it is that her friend be sober for this, and what complications may and will arise after the procedure if Mia has sex, continues to use drugs and alcohol, and so forth.  Alia hears and understands, but gives flippant responses and eventually the health worker gives up – bring her in once she’s sober, and they’ll see what they can do.  Alia leaves with Mia, returning to their apartment building in the projects, all the while explaining again and again that Mia has to be sober, and no, she can’t have any drink or drugs until the whole thing is over.  She is finally able to convince Mia to do it by offering to cover her wages while Mia is out of commission after the procedure.

Back in the loft, Gareth has started into his and Wally’s strange encounter from the night before – the “TOUCHED” note, the footprint on the windowsill, the unsettling feeling that they’d missed something.  Goom says he might be able to figure something out, and Gareth gives his permission for Goom to investigate.  While this is happening, Drake examines his laptop and sees fine scratch marks around a USB portal – someone had tried in a hurry to plug in a flash drive, and he knows it had to have been the cops.  Nothing seems removed or damaged, though, and he asks Gareth for a hot glue gun, to fill in the open ports on his computer to prevent future tampering.  He then begins to look up what his doppelgänger has been doing, noting his odd purchases of stock in concrete and steel.  He wonders what his Other is up to – building something?

Meanwhile, Goom has started sniffing around Gareth’s apartment.  Literally – nose to the ground, at the windowsill, going all over the space, tracking almost like a hound.  He goes from the window, across the apartment to the bathroom door (though not in), over to the couch, and back to the window.  He says that is the path the intruder followed, noting that the person stopped in the bathroom door, and paused for a while at the couch where Wally slept, presumably to leave the note, before exiting the way they entered.  He says the  person smelled of sweat and stale beer, he smells metal, like a bunch of body piercings, and blood.  This description doesn’t seem familiar to Gareth or anyone else.

Wally finally makes it back to his apartment, but doesn’t go in.  Parked about a block down is a sleek black limo, definitely out of place for this area, and the back door and window are thrumming violet black.  It starts rolling towards him, and he walks quickly away, turning down a side street.  It changes course and follows.  Wally runs down an alley.  The back door of the limo opens and someone shouts, “Mr. Kim!”  He keeps running.  He dashes into another alley and disposes of his Pyrex shards, keeping anything that managed to make it through the accident.  He circles back around to his apartment.

Back at Gareth’s, Morgan notices something in her pocket that hadn’t been there before.  It is a golf ball sized sphere, dark and shiny, like a large black pearl, and it is cool to the touch.  She hands it to Goom to sniff.  It has no smell.  Not just that, it is the absence of smell.  She recalls from her red door dream that she had put a bottle in her pocket, although it hadn’t been there when she came back to The Box.  This is the same pocket.  Goom picks up a scrap of something from Gareth’s work bench, and has Morgan put it in her pocket; Goom’s theory is that it is a magic pocket.  He adds that it may be best for them to find a new meeting place, if they’re all already being watched, and he offers up his lair as a meeting place, provided no one is opposed to entering a sewer to get there.

Sneaking back to his building, Wally again sees the limo.  This time it is parked directly in front of his building.  Again he turns tail, calling 911, reporting that “There are people threatening me outside my apartment, they’ve been threatening me all day” and provides the address and hangs up, avoiding the area for part of the afternoon. The limo is, of course, still there when he returns.  Giving up, he approaches it with his arms out.  A man wearing a cross between a chauffeur’s outfit and a Nazi SS uniform steps out of the driver door.  His head is shaved and his face is covered in piercings.  “Mr. Kim?” he asks, and Wally nods.  The man pulls out a small box topped with a blue bow and a black butterfly, offering it to Wally, who tells him to put it on the ground.  The man confers with his passenger and then places the box on the street.  He gets back in the limo and drives away, past Wally.  Wally makes sure they’re good and gone before picking up the box.  The butterfly atop it is fake, made mostly of wire.  He brings it up to his apartment where he finds the hole in his wall has been patched and poorly painted.  He shoves as much of his book collection as he can fit into his duffel bag, and then opens the box.

On top is nice parchment with Japanese writing.  (Wally is Korean, but knows some Japanese).  Beneath the parchment are envelopes, each with the name of a person in the abductees group, along with one addressed to “The Woman In White”.  Getting a rough translation, Wally reads the parchment as “Any nice dreams lately?”  He ponders it for a bit before opening his envelope which, like the others, is sealed with a butterfly stamp.  It contains an invitation card with an address, date and time, and instructions to be dressed in “business casual” attire.  He looks up the address.  It is the Chrysler building, and the suite number on the card corresponds to the 75^th floor of 77.  According to the information he finds online, floors 75 – 77 are owned by an unpublished occupant.  The meeting time is at 1:30pm the following Friday – Black Friday.

Changeling: Session 5

When last we met, our heroes were subjected to some supreme mindfuckery inside the surreal night club known as The Box.

After receiving their consolation prize of $500 each, the group departs, going their separate ways.  Alia starts to head off, but Morgan stops her to make brief introductions and to hand her a flyer for their support group, on which Morgan scribbles her phone number.

As he heads down the alley, Wally realises that his nose is bleeding heavily and does what he can to staunch the flow.  He feels that the air seems to be carrying a charge, almost thrumming.  He turns and sees the others making their way, stumbling, down the alley behind him, and everything around him seems shadowy.  The door of The Box, however, seems to be backlit purple, and out of the shadows he sees creeping tendrils of darker darkness.  He turns and runs out to the street and eventually makes his way to Gareth’s apartment, though the entire way he feels as though he is being followed, although the feeling passes once he is in the apartment.  At some point in his travels, the light also returned to normal.

Gareth, Morgan, and Drake all head to a bar that Drake knows to still be open at this time of night. (day?)  For the first two blocks, Gareth feels intense unease, as though something is following him – the same sensation Wally had on his way home.  He looks around and sees nothing out of the ordinary, and after two blocks it subsides.

Goom returns to his lair and drifts off to sleep, where he has another horrendous nightmare.  This time he is in a MASH unit, suffering from some awful jungle virus.  Time passes and as his caretakers argue about what is wrong with him, he receives no treatment and gets increasingly worse.  He feels a throbbing pain in his right eye that only intensifies with time.  Eventually the vision in that eye occludes.  One night he is finally left alone, and, covered in filth and sweat, he rolls out of bed.  He searches the infirmary for a mirror and after registering that he appears to be young and fit as he was when he was in Vietnam, realises that his eye – the actual eye itself – has swollen to several times its normal size.  It is then that his eye explodes, and out of it pour dozens of honey bees. 

Goom awakens screaming and feels a warm wetness on the left side of his face, touching it, his hand comes away with blood mixed with some clear fluid.  There is also a hollow where his left eye used to be, and his eyestalk is lying on the outside of his face.  He feels no pain when he pushes it back into his eye socket, and gets some cloth to tie around his head to keep it in.  He makes his way to a hospital.

Meanwhile at the bar, Gareth, Morgan, and Drake are all drinking and discussing the night, each sharing what they experienced in their vision, although Gareth holds back some details of his.  They are interrupted by two ageing Jersey girls who start trying to hit on Drake and Gareth, completely ignoring Morgan.  When Gareth declines the offer, the girl who had been talking to him starts loudly berating him for being queer, and her friend joins in, prompting Drake to ask the bartender to throw the ladies out.  Gareth thanks him, though says that it is not necessary, he’s dealt with this sort of thing his entire life.  Last call is made and they depart, returning to their respective homes.

Alia goes out on the street trying to scrounge up a John or two so that she can make her money for the night – the guys she had gone to The Box with never paid her in full.  Due to the lateness of the hour (or is it earliness?) she is unsuccessful and only goes back with the $500 from the club.  Her pimp berates her, saying that she’s going to owe him in a big way, and gives her $100 out of the envelope.  Alia goes to her room to sleep, also falling into a fitful dream.  The four guys from the club are there, and they’re all fucking her.  She finds that she keeps drifting in and out of her body, sometimes experiencing it from her normal perspective, sometimes watching from across the room.  The dream turns violent and the first guy, the leader of the bunch, yells at her for leaving him in the club after he’d paid for her, as he starts beating her with a baseball bat.  She is out of her body and crosses the room in just a couple of strides, and tears off the guy’s head with her bare hands.  She sees that her hands have become claws, and she is covered in fur with zebra and leopard markings.  The other frat boys start to scream and run.  Now she’s in a dark hall and the first guy is there, head back in place, with a comically oversized erection, and he looks furious.  She sees that she is abused, bruised and bleeding.  He tries to take another swing at her with the baseball bat, but she lunges and tears his dick off.  The bat explodes against her head.  He runs and she gives chase, gaining on him as he trips over his enormous phallus.  She leaps at him, biting on to his foot and shakes him violently, and then starts consuming him.  Alia awakens suddenly, finding herself on the floor next to her bed, tangled in her sheets.

Alex is at work as part of a crew cleaning a local high school.  He’s mopping the front of the building, where there are several pay phones that line the walls – relics of an older time.  One of them rings, and he goes to answer it.  It stops just as his hand touches the receiver, and another phone across the hall starts ringing.  This dance repeats several times, and each time a phone stops ringing, it dispenses a quarter out of the change slot.  Finally, all the phones start ringing, and Alex lunges to answer one.  On the other end is his daughter, frightened and pleading.  She asks him why she can’t regognise his face, what is wrong with his face?  It is then that he catches his reflection in a window and he appears featureless – hollows where eyes nose and mouth should be – and the hand holding the phone appears to have no fingernails.  His daughter’s voice grows urgent, saying that they’re coming to take her, the same ones that took him, and that he’s got less than a month, begging him, “Don’t go.”  He hears her struggle with something, and there is a chittering sound on the line before the call ends. 

Across the hall, a closet door starts rattling, and when Alex opens it, hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of butterflies come bursting forth, completely covering every surface of the hallway.  The sound of their wings is deafening.  Alex gingerly makes his way through the swarm to a bathroom where he inspects his face which again appears totally featureless in the reflection, and he feels that his skin has gone malleable, with a putty-like texture.  He hears a coworker calling to him, and they begin trying to figure out what to do with all the butterflies, which are apparently very real indeed.  They try to clear them out, though before too long students and staff start arriving on the very confusing scene.  There is also a news crew that shows up to document this bizarre occurrence, and Alex does whatever he can to avoid being seen by the cameras and crew.  He makes his way away from the commotion and messages the group to see if anyone is awake.

When Gareth arrives home, he sees Wally asleep on the couch, a piece of paper folded on his chest.  Gareth gingerly picks it up and sees that TOUCHED is written on it – the same message and handwriting that had been on the back of one of Meagan’s pictures in the old meeting place.  He tires to gently awaken Wally, who comes to with a violent jolt.  Gareth shows Wally the message, and they both notice that the apartment is cold.  Too cold, to the point that they can see their breath.  Gareth begins to inspect the apartment, finding the window nearest his bed is open, with a bare human footprint lingering in the frost on the sill, angled as though it were stepping in.  He combs the room but finds nothing, asking Wally to look around, to no avail.  He inspects the rest of the apartment.  Nothing.  He can’t shake the feeling that he’s overlooking something, and the two of them do not sleep, with Gareth opting to work on an art piece, television turned on to local news to help keep him awake.

At some point during the early daylight hours, Gareth and Wally catch the story about the butterflies at the high school Alex had been cleaning (although they don’t know he was there).  That’s when they get his text message, and Gareth replies that he’s awake and at home.  Alex says he will stop at Gareth’s place on his way home, as he has to tell them about what really happened with the butterflies.

When Alex comes into the apartment, Wally freaks out, as he sees Alex’s visage changing as he moves in and out of shadows.  When he’s in the light, he appears normal, though when he crosses into a shadowy patch of the room, his face looks featureless.  Alex notices the same thing about Wally, although in shadow, Wally looks dead, though still with his face intact.  Both of them say something to Gareth, who doesn’t know what they’re talking about – they both look normal to him, regardless of the lighting.  Wally tries to leave, but both Alex and Gareth caution him, since they don’t know what is going on, and think it is safer to stay.  Wally decides he’s having none of this, and bolts from the apartment out to the street.

Out of an alley next to him emerges a monster.  It is a man, but not a man.  It has one large eye in the middle of its forehead – a Cyclops straight out of an ancient legend.  Wally screams and the thing steps out of the shadows into the sunlight, changing form, and Goom starts to say something to Wally.  In a blind panic, Wally turns and runs into the street where he is struck by a taxi.  Upstairs, Alex and Gareth hear the thud and squealing tires as the car screeches to a stop.

Changeling: Session 4

When last we met, our heroes had successfully gotten information on their missing friend and managed to break into her abandoned apartment to start investigating her disappearance.

Since Gareth's apartment is nearby and is the largest (he's got a decently sized studio flat which doubles as both his living space and his workshop for his sculptures and other art) they all go there.  They discuss the night club that was mentioned in M. Butterfly's letter, The Box, and decide to look it up online.   It is a very weird, decadent, artsy place, and they require reservations in advance - though no mention of a cover charge - and it is heavily implied that guests are to dress to the nines.  The attractions start at midnight, though doors open at 11:30.  The club shuts its doors after 4:00 am.

The group agrees to go that Thursday night, which will give most of them time to find appropriate attire.  Goom offers to scope the club out before, to see what they're getting themselves into.

Wally, who is staying with Gareth after his apartment was destroyed by a police raid, goes to work that night.  It is slow.  The only remarkable thing is a fellow wearing brown trousers, a puffy blue coat, and sunglasses (at night) who comes in to fill a Flonase prescription and leaves his newspaper on the counter.  After he leaves, Wally opens it up.  The headline is about the raid on his building, although scrawled across the page in black Sharpie is the message "Any nice dreams recently?" He folds it and places it with his things.  The rest of his night is uneventful.

Goom goes to The Box that night.  It looks shitty - down a back alley, rusty door, a single unshielded bulb - although leading to it there is a velvet rope and the line that stretches around the corner is full of persons in black tie and other modes of elegant evening wear.  Two imposing bouncers, as wide as they are tall, man the door and patrol the line.  Now and again people are pulled who don't meet the club's standards, and they are sent away.  Others, though, are given a hard look by the bouncer and are allowed to just go in.  By 1:30 am no one else is allowed in and the alley goes quiet.  By 3:00 am, people start filtering back out.  At 3:45 Goom sees some of the people who had received special line treatment come back out, some looking rather ill.  By 4:00 there is only a trickle, and by 5:00 there is no one left.  He never sees anyone come out to lock up, so there must be some other way in and out of the property.

When the sun comes up, the group runs around to find some nice but affordable attire.  The most notable acquisition is, of course, Goom’s; he finds his suit in the garbage behind a costume shop.  It is a plum tuxedo with Liberace levels of ruffles on the shirt, and has patent leather shoes to match.  Dressed to kill, they meet again at Gareth’s flat.

Once in line at The Box, they wait for about 40 minutes before the bounce comes by.  He gives them a quizzical look and opens the rope to usher them through to the door.  A guy in line behind them loudly complains that Goom doesn’t deserve to cut the line.  Wally turns and shouts, “Sir!  That man is a European prince!”  Goom gives an intimidating look, and the man is cowed.

A European Prince

 Inside, the place is decadent and packed with patrons.  None of the group really has any money, but before that can really become an issue some of them are approached (or do the approaching) by flirtatious club-goers and the free drinks flow.  Goom, notably, is swamped by people, although he looks exceedingly uncomfortable. 

Wally senses that someone is watching them.  Looking around, he senses the noise level drop and his heart stops for a moment before it picks up the rhythm of the club.  Not just the music – everything and everyone seem to be moving in a rhythm that they are not aware of.  He knows they must be moving at regular speed, but he’s perceiving it all in this weird deliberate slowness.  He sees a cage full of butterflies burst open as the insects flutter out – some notice them, others don’t.  A big yellow butterfly lands on the bar between Gareth and Morgan.  Wally reaches his finger out to touch it, and as he does, it bursts into a puff of glitter.  He turns to leave and the lights completely cut out.

When they come back up, there is a man on stage dressed in a white suit (no shirt), and with devil horns spirit-gummed to his forehead.  He goes into his welcome spiel.  While this is happening, Wally tries to leave, but is denied by the bouncers, one of whom grabs him and says “It is not your moment.”  Wally opts instead to go up to the balcony, where he sees a young black woman in a tight white dress leaning over the balcony to watch the activities below.  She is with a group of “bros” who don’t seem to really care about her.
Various acts are presented on stage, of varying quality, and over all it is a very enjoyable evening.  Finally the devilish emcee comes back out to announce that the finale has arrived, and that they need a group of volunteers.  Before Gareth can raise his hand to take that invitation, the lights go out yet again.  When they come back up, there are spotlights on each of the abductee group, as well as the woman in the balcony.  Drake, Morgan, and Gareth go up willingly, although there is a bit of a struggle to get the remainder up there.  

When Goom and Alex approach, they start perceiving the crowd in slow-mo, as Wally had, and find they are unable to stop their forward momentum to the stage.  On stage there is a red door in a white frame, nothing more.  The emcee gathers them all around him and whispers, “This is exactly what you came for,” as he opens the door to reveal only inky blackness.  Goom goes through first, followed by Morgan, then Drake, Gareth, the unfamiliar woman, Alex, and finally Wally.  As each of them steps through, they get the distinct feeling of falling.  Wally hears the door slam behind him.

Wally feels a room rush up to meet him, as though he fell into it.  He is in a rustic cabin, roaring fire, the works.  Out the windows he can see that woods surround him.  He is alone.  He curls up on the ground and weeps until he can weep no more.  He notices a black van approaching outside, and when it opens, he sees it has a red interior.  Figures clad in black emerge and start rushing the cabin, so Wally retreats out another door, which leads into a hallway – this cabin is bigger than it seems.  Hearing the men in black entering the house, he steps into the first room he comes to.  It reeks of stale urine and shit, and he can hear someone whimpering inside.  He does not investigate, but goes to try another door.  The next room he opens he is unable to enter, as pouring out of it are teeth.  Dirty brown, diseased and broken, they’re coming with enough force that he’s afraid he’ll get crushed by them.  By this point the men have come into the hall, and they are brandishing syringes with yellow liquid.  Wally sees the red door (the same one from The Box) at the end of the hall, and he manages to wade through the teeth and opens it.  As he passes back through, he hears a voice say, “Soon.  Very soon."

Alex walks through the door and exits onto another stage, and he thinks he can hear the sounds of The Box behind him.  In the audience are strange personages.  Some of them look like trees, others like animals, some others make no sense entirely – his mind cannot reconcile what they actually look like.  They begin to laugh at him, growing ever more hysterical.  On stage with Alex is his doppelganger, known to the world as the famous magician Konstantyn.  The doppelganger puts out the cigarette he’s been smoking and says, “It’s not long now,” as he turns to open a coffin that is sitting open on the stage.  Alex asks, “Where are they?”  “I don’t know, but we’d better get started,” is the reply.  “Started with what?”  “Your trick,” says Konstantyn as he climbs into the coffin and closes his eyes.  The emcee from The Box enters the stage and announces, “His final trick!  The vanishing half a man!” as Alex closes the lid (emblazoned with KONSTANTYN 12/25/13) and begins sawing.  Half way through he hears a whimper and sees blood on the saw.  The audience calms down, and the emcee suggests they’re growing bored.  Alex gives a flourish and opens the coffin for the big reveal.  The body appears un-sawed, although it seems as though Konstantyn ate his gun.  The emcee goes wild, shouting that he discovered Alex, “He’s mine!  He’s mine!” as he ushers Alex back through the red door, and as Alex steps through he notices that the emcee’s devil horns appear real.

Gareth is lying on a scratchy couch, with the smell of cigarette smoke lingering in the air.  He knows this place, has been here before.  It is a therapist’s office, although he can’t quite place it.  To one side he hears beeping, like hospital machinery, and he follows it through the office to a room cordoned off with heavy plastic sheeting.  Inside there are several figures milling about, all wearing big yellow biohazard suits.  Gareth looks down and realises he is also wearing one, albeit with a large red X taped across the chest.  The other people notice him and shake their heads.  He begins following the beeps, when he is approached by the mother of his boyfriend.  She tries to yell, “Your fault,” at Gareth, although between their two hoods, all he gets are the mouth movements.  She then tries to spit on him, to little physical effect.  Gareth turns towards the sound of beeping behind him and begins pulling on the plastic curtains, growing more frustrated.  When the plastic sheeting tears and the heavy material comes down, he falls to the floor next to a hospital bed with a half-skeletal figure on it.  Gareth gets up and sees on the side table a clip board with G.R.I.D. stamped across it.  He looks at the patient and knows it is Sam, although he is so sick and so emaciated he is only partially recognisable.  His lower body is swollen and full of fluid, and looks to be one large bruise.  Gareth reaches out to caress Sam’s face, whispering, “I’m so sorry.”  As he touches Sam, a tear forms and starts spreading down Sam’s entire body, spilling out putrid purple fluid.  Again Sam’s mother is there, now armed with a scalpel, and tries to attack Gareth, again accusing him, “Your fault!  Your fault!”  Desperate, Gareth pushes her away and she falls, and in trying to catch herself, she rips an IV out of Sam’s arm.  No longer receiving whatever pain medication was in the bag, Sam sits up in agony.  Gareth fights back the rising bile in his throat.  He begins backing out to the therapist’s office, and is followed by security personnel with dead eyes and hands going to guns.  He sees the red door to one side, and rushes back into darkness.

Drake is in darkness, although his body is lit as though in natural light.  He stands in the nothingness for a moment before he pitches forward, falling.  Now he is in a Porsche, speeding very fast across a bridge, a phone pole looming ever closer.  Next to him is a hot blonde woman with a blown out hair ‘do.  She purrs to him, “Choose.”  Drake knows her, although he can’t place her.  He hears a wet beating noise coming from the back seat and knows there is someone – something? – back there masturbating.  His steering wheel has a Club device on it, locking it on course.  He vaguely recalls having been a shareholder in that company, way back when.  The driver’s side door is the red door from The Box.  He knows he has a choice to make – stay in the car with the woman and the masturbator, heading dead on for a phone pole, or leave.  At the last second he opens the door and dives through.

Morgan is in a dress shop, trying on a wedding dress.  She knows this is the shop where she was Taken, but the dress is not the right style for when she was taken and when she looks in the mirror, she seems misshapen.  She hears a woman approach from behind her and whisper, “You smell good enough to eat!” followed by a sharp pain in her shoulder.  Morgan turns towards the woman who is wearing a purple prom dress and has blood on her mouth.  The woman licks it off, saying, “Sorry, it just tastes so good!”  She leaves to get another dress.  Morgan hears a whirring sound from elsewhere in the shop and, grabbing a wire hanger for defense, follows it to the main shop area where she sees several other women in prom dresses.  Again Morgan is told that she looks good enough to eat.  She declines the offer of another dress to try, and goes back to the dressing room to change into her clothes.  The back room she ends up in is wet and she sees her clothes on a steel table next to a whirring dentist drill – hence the noise.  As she approaches, she is overcome with the aroma of delicious, fresh gingerbread.  She grabs her clothes, and beneath her shirt on the table is a vial with a golden honey-like substance bearing the label “Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice”.  Morgan pockets the vial.  Turning, she sees the group of women from the shop, all looking at her with predatory eyes while she dresses, and they follow her as she goes out to purchase her dress, all the while standing around her.  She realises that one of them is carrying an electric carving knife and a silver platter.  At the other end of the shop, Morgan spies the red door from The Box, and she tries to excuse herself and starts walking toward it, but the women pursue her.  She runs, but one grabs her leg, bringing her down just feet from the door.  She feels and hears the electric carver cut into her calf, and there is excruciating pain as four inches of her flesh is cut away.  She somehow manages to get up and hobble to the door, where she pitches forward into blackness.

Goom is lying on his back, half immersed in water, and feels as though he’s hundreds of pounds lighter than he presently is.  He smells burnt vegetation, burnt flesh, and the unmistakable odor of Agent Orange.  There is machine gun fire in the distance.  The foliage above and around him is all tropical, all is occluded by thick black smoke.  He can feel holes in his torso and his hands are covered in blood.  Chunks are missing from his legs, and although he is alert, he knows he should not be alive.  He sits up and water runs out of his wounds, an eel wriggling out of a hole in his torso.  He feels immense pain as his jaw, torn apart (by what?  Bullets?  Shrapnel?) , separates from his face and is hanging by a thread on one side.  Every movement he makes causes it to swing, bringing excruciating pain.  He is overwhelmed by the desire to just rip it off, but he resists, and tears a strip of his G.I. uniform to tie it back on.  His blood has now gone tacky and he is surrounded by flies.  There is a small child nearby, naked, but so charred and ravaged by napalm that its gender is indiscernible.  Goom strips his shirt off, intending to clothe the child, and approaches.  The child raises its arms and unleashes an unholy scream as it charges him.  Goom grabs at it, and it wrenches away from him, dislodging its own arm in the process.  The charred bone hand grabs at Goom’s chest, tearing at his pectoral muscle, and a putrid smell comes from the wounds, along with maggots.  Goom tries to fight it, but is distracted by the sound of someone calling for him in the distance.  The child attacks him again, tearing into his lover.  He collapses and the child begins to eat him.  A burst of machine gone fire, gloved hands grabbing at him, dragging him away.  He hands lift him up and he is facing the red door from The Box.  A boot kicks at him, and he falls through into blackness.

Alia is in the alley outside the Box on her hands and knees as though she’d been thrown out.  She is still wearing the same white dress and high heels she’d been wearing that night.  She takes a moment to pick gravel out of her hands and knees and starts walking out of the alley to the street.  Though she’s walking at a normal pace, the street never gets any closer.  She is suddenly aware of a presence behind her, and starts walking faster, to no avail.  When she feels its breath on the back of her neck, she spins around to confront it.  There is nothing there.  Now she is aware of the presence behind her again, between she and the alley way.  She begins running back towards The Box, feeling the presence growing ever closer to her.  The club door is where it should be, but it is not the same metal door, it is the red door she had stepped through just a short while ago.  Not turning to see what is behind her, she sprints towards the door – heels be damned.  Just as she’s sure the thing will get her, she reaches the door and barrels through, stepping into a dark nothingness.

They all come to, suspended over the stage in straight jackets – any injuries they’d sustained during whatever they just went through are no longer apparent.  The Box is devoid of patrons, save for the emcee sitting at the bar, removing his horns, and the two large bouncers who lower the group down and set about undoing their bonds.  As they get up, each is handed an envelope containing five $100 bills.  There are seven shots lined up along the bar – one for each.  Gareth, Drake, and Morgan each drink a shot, and as the others decline, they finish the remainders as well.

The emcee asks how they knew to come to The Box, and Gareth mentions M. Butterfly.  The emcee is not unfamiliar, making familiar but vague references to her even calling her a whore at one point.  Eventually everyone decides they’ve had enough and leave.

Changeling: Session 3

When we last met, our heroes were laying low after a bus exploded in front of their meeting place, and had failed at getting information from a notorious local drug dealer in hopes of finding their missing friend.


Police arrive at the scene, briefly question Alex (who had remained in Starbucks), and send him on his way.  On his way home, Alex purchases a burner phone and activates it.

Wally flees home and sees an unmarked cop car sitting outside his building.  Thinking better of it, he keeps walking and spends a few hours at the library.  When he returns, there is a different car, different cops.  He goes in anyway.  When he leaves for work that night, he again notes the car.  Once at work he calls the pharmacy from his cell phone to listen for weird clicks or other abnormalities, but all seems normal.


At around 6:00 pm, Drake, who is at one of his usual haunts with his friend Luthor, receives a call from Diggles, who apologises for things getting "a little heated", but Drake and his people have clearly shown that they mean business, and he's still interested in whatever Drake had proposed.  He wants to meet somewhere to discuss further.  Drake hangs up on him and messages the group, and they decide to meet in two days to discuss where to go from there.

Anyone watching the news that evening hears only a brief mention of the shooting in the park.  The big story is that officials have a major lead on the bus bomber and Mayor Bloomberg promises that the fugitive will be dead or incarcerated in 48 hours.

At home that evening, Alex receives calls simultaneously on his Verizon and burner phones.  When he answers the burner, his other phone stops ringing.  Again with the clicks and the breathing.  He messages everyone to alert them.

The next night, around 9:00 pm, Wally hears a knock at his door.  Through the peep hole he sees a man of Middle Eastern descent, wearing a red Adidas jacket, yellow shirt, and headphones.  Wally cracks the door, and the guy kicks it in, immediately drawing a pistol, followed closely by a SWAT team.  Notably, the SWAT guys don't aim at Wally but start focusing on his back wall, prepping an infrared camera, and small boxes connected with wire along the wall.  The Adidas guy brings Wally to another room, where they hear a series of cracks, voices, and gunfire.  In the mayhem, the Adidas guy slips a piece of paper into Wally's pocket and tells him that the city will be in contact with the building owner about the damage to Wally's property.  Adidas guy leaves.  Wally's neighbour the next flat over is dead.  Eventually SWAT clears out and is replaced by standard officers, setting up the crime scene.

Wally looks at the paper, which has written in pretty script "Sweet Dreams" and a black butterfly.  While he's trying to make sense of this, an officer tells him that it is apparently OK for him to remain in his apartment.  Wally confronts his landlord, Hank, who is in a panic about their meth production set up in the basement.  (Wally cooks, Hank sells).  Wally can recover the chemistry set, but the product will need to be destroyed.  Hank reluctantly agrees, and Wally goes down to the basement to clean up.

Others who are watching on the news notice in the static footage of the building entrance that Wally walks through the lobby and peeks out.  He is immediately flooded with messages from the group.  Wally sets about disposing of the product, and then heads to work with the PD's blessing.  While at work, he messages back, explaining to everyone what happened. Gareth offers up his shoddy couch as an alternative to sleeping in a crime scene, and Wally replies that he'll likely take the offer.

When he gets off work that night, Wally collects his chemistry set, along with some personal belongings, and brings them over to Gareth's apartment.  Wanting to be open and honest about things, he lets Gareth know what he's brought with him.  Gareth just laughs.  Wally departs for the time being, having only wanted to get the incriminating evidence out of his building; he will spend the night in his own apartment.  When Gareth brings up the What-To-Do-About-Diggles meeting the next day, Wally declines, having forgotten, and asks Gareth to bring him up to speed.

2:00 rolls around, and the group (including Goom) meets at the appointed bar.  Drake reiterates his conversation the other day, and everyone agrees that this is the best current means of getting information on Meagan.  Goom suggests meeting Diggles in an alley in Hells Kitchen, one he knows to have multiple points of egress in the event things go south.  Drake calls Diggles to propose the time (the following day at 2:30) and place.  Diggles is permitted to bring two associates.  He agrees, but comments that the whole thing seems a bit shady.  This decided, the group goes their separate ways.

Meanwhile, Wally is at his apartment, and has fallen into a deep sleep.  He awakens to total darkness, no light whatsoever, although he can hear his alarm clock going off (he hadn't set it).  He finds he can't move his mouth, but the rest of his body is functional.  He hears a rattle from his bedside table.  Freaked out, he bolts from bed, using sense memory to navigate.  The rattling growing louder, he throws open the apartment door only to encounter more inky blackness.  He returns to confront the rattling table, punching wildly at it, breaking things and sending his alarm clock flying.  Frustrated, he runs his hands over his face and feels... nothing.  No eyes, no nose, no mouth.  Indentations where features should be.  He opens the drawer and finds himself looking up at his smooth featureless face - his face is in the drawer.

Not knowing what else to do, he picks up his face and attempts to press it on to his head.  As he does so, there is a knock at the door, and the officer on duty in the other apartment leans in to ask if he is all right, having heard the crashing.  Wally can see, can speak, can breathe.  He reassures the officer, who departs.  Panicked, Wally packs and goes to Gareth's place.  Once there, he tells Gareth about what he hopes was a dream.  Gareth doesn't know what to say.

That same night, Alex awakens to find both his phones indicating text messages.  The one on his original Verizon phone reads, "No daddy don't go".  The burner reads, "Please please find me".

The following afternoon, Drake and Goom set up in the alley, and the others wait in a coffee shop across the way, to keep an eye out.  On time, Diggles shows up with his two massive bodyguards, all emerging from a blue VW Rabbit.

Imagine this swoll ride disgorging this...

Per our GM: "That photo exactly, but with a faux tiger fur over the shoulders and a blinged out 9 mm."

Seeing Goom in an upstairs window, armed, Diggles has his toughs stay back, and approaches with his hands out.  He starts to go into a long winded explanation of his distribution set up, saying they can get anything anywhere, as they are "the Facebook of drugs".  Drake thanks him and says his partners will be in touch, but in a show of good faith, can Diggles provide information about a girl they're interested in?  After being shown a picture of Meagan, Diggles acknowledges he knows of her and gives Drake what he has.  Beyond pumped about what he believes to be prospective new business, Diggles leaves.

Realising that her old place is near by, everyone gathers and heads out.  It is not a nice part of town, project housing.  They knock at her door, hearing music, but there is no answer.  Alex manages to pick the lock, and they enter to find the place ransacked, as though there had been a long fight.  In the centre of the room is a record player, playing an unlabelled LP on repeat.  Alex, Drake, and Gareth hear a flapping noise from the bedroom; upon investigation it is a piece of paper blowing in the air vent, the cover of which had been removed.  The bedroom is otherwise undisturbed.  Getting a boost from Alex, Gareth reaches into the air vent, pulling out a letter and a composition journal.

While the others investigate, Gareth reads.  The letter is from an "M. Butterfly" to "Appledore", dated November 6, 2013 (the group found the scattered pictures on November 7, the current date is November 20).  The letter is heavily existential, written from one abductee to another, referring to those that took them as The Vanishers.  M. Butterfly agrees with Appledore that the Vanishers are watching and will soon be coming for Appledore's friends.  Appledore is admonished for not following M. Butterfly's warnings and M.B. is sure that by the time Appledore has finished reading, (s)he will be gone again.  Still, two pieces of advice are offered: 


1. Stay close to the sky. 
2. Never visit the mole people.

 The composition notebook is Meagan's journal from the past few months.  In it she reveals she returned to her home town, met up and hung out with her "twin" (the thing that looks like her and took over her life).  Among other things, she also mentions a quilt she's had since childhood, which has gone with her everywhere - Gareth sees it on her bed, taking it with the intent of giving it back to Meagan - and which she stole back from her doppelgänger.  She spent some time in California, where she encountered M. Butterly.  While she was travelling, she was the happiest she's been in ages, although she inevitably came back to NYC.  She writes about the group, and seems to grow ever more paranoid.  After a couple of false starts, she finally signs on with a boat (the school at sea), thinking she'll be happiest there - one of them was called the Appledore.  Along the way she also makes a comment that her best camera has been acting up.

She also makes note that M. Butterfly directed her to check out  a club on the lower east side of Manhattan where she might find more information about the Slender Man who took her. It’s some club called “The Box: Theater of Varieties.”  Her final entry, dated November 6 reads, "Wa-right. Went to the Box. Place completely ate my head. Being followed. Scared. New letter from M. Butterfy."

Drake goes down the hall and speaks to one of Meagan's neighbours, an older black woman.  She said that Meagan was nice, but she hadn't heard from her in a while.  Drake makes something up about possible boy trouble, but the neighbour says she had never seen Meagan with a boyfriend.

Before the group leaves, Gareth also collects her camera, the one that had been "acting up".  He takes a shot of the record player, and notes that there are now two pictures on the SD card.

Everyone returns to Gareth's apartment to bring Wally up to speed and to take stock of what they've learnt.

Changeling: Session 2

When we last met, the group had finished playing get-to-know-you, and was just starting to deal with the disappearance of their friend, while reeling from the chaos of a major explosion right outside of their old meeting spot.

44 Hours After the Bus Exploded

Drake had reached out to a contact of his who works in Atlantic City, asking what he could find out about Meagan.  He learns that she had a record, pot possession, and that she was known to have been in contact with a local dealer known only as “Diggles”.  Obviously that’s an alias, but no one seems to have any other information on the guy.  Drake figures this is better than nothing, and thanks his contact.

Wally is at work, manning the CVS prescription counter, and it is a slow night.  He jerks awake suddenly, realising that he’d dozed off.  He looks down to find that while he was off, he’d been writing furiously on an empty prescription bag.  A chemical formula.  Just as he’s trying to make sense of it, the pharmacy phone rings.  He answers it, but there are only a series of four clicks and then a dial tone.  He thinks nothing of it and returns to the formula.  Suddenly it clicks.  He knows.  It is the formula for whatever was in the bomb the blew the #7 bus two nights before.  And whatever was in the bomb was mostly solid state rocket fuel.

The phone rings again.  This time it is an old woman, a regular customer, inquiring about her prescription, and after she hangs up, he hears it again – four clicks followed by the dial tone.  Suspicious, Wally carefully takes apart the receiver (it is an old phone, permanently connected to the wall base with a curling cord) and finds two small components soldered in, components that are clearly much newer than the ancient phone.  He wraps them carefully in a latex glove for later examination and checks the phone still works.  It does.

That night, Alex is working at a homeless shelter, something he does from time to time, hoping to find his daughter.  As he’s cleaning out a massive soup pot, his cell phone rings.  He answers, but only hears four clicks, and then dial tone.  Twenty minutes later, it happens again.  Never any caller ID.  By the time he leaves the shelter around 9:45, he has received more of these unusual calls, and as he steps outside, it happens again.  Only this time, across from him in a dark alley, he sees a black panel van start up, and inside is the silhouette of someone lowering a phone from their ear.  The van moves off, and Alex notes that it has no license plates.  He immediately texts the group members, inquiring about the strange calls, and gets a reply back from Wally.

Gareth is in his studio apartment, working on a new piece of sculpture, news radio on in the background, still listening to coverage of the explosion investigation.  They’re zeroing in on a suspect, they say, and the attack is definitely domestic and not Islamic in nature.  The chemical signature is providing great leads, and they can report that the suspect is a white male between the ages of 16 and 35.  Morgan is in her shop, doing readings for late night customers.  Neither receives any calls, suspicious or otherwise.

Goom is asleep in a maintenance tunnel.  He awakens to hear heavy rain and notes that his wristwatch has stopped.  He hears a groan in the distance and advances towards it.  Around a bend in the tunnel, he sees a male figure in a canvas coat, arms akimbo, long greasy hair in his face, kneeling.  There is a puddle of water around him growing ever larger, and the sound of falling water is coming from him.  Goom double back to get his gun before investigating further.  The man begins to shake, and the closer Goom gets, the more violent the shaking becomes.  As Goom comes around to face him, the man’s head snaps up – his face is melting like a candle.  Goom knows he looks familiar, he’s seen this, and as this thought crosses his mind, the man’s body just dissipates, becoming one with the puddle.

Goom sits up suddenly from where he’d been sleeping in the maintenance tunnel.  There is no more rain, although he notes he has wet himself.  He collects his meager belongings, intending to burn his soiled sleeping bag in an incinerator.  When he looks down the corridor where the man had been, there is no evidence of the puddle, although the exact canvas jacket is there.  He takes that, too, to burn it.  

The next day, Morgan goes out to find a new spot for the group to meet, as they don’t feel comfortable at the old building any more.  She finally gets a Christian book store to agree to host, after hours.  The shop will be empty, although there will be an employee staying around the front, just to keep an eye on things.  No offense meant, of course, but they have to be careful.  She informs the group of the new meeting place via text messages, although she leaves a note for Goom at a diner he had specified for them as a drop point for communications.

When the group next meets, they discuss the strange calls – Alex has continued getting them and had gone to a Verizon store to get his phone repaired.  They gave him a refurbished phone as a loaner, and he still gets calls.  Wally brings up his insight about the explosive formula, and they all figure that it was rigged in such a way to only take out the bus and everyone on board, not actually wreck the surroundings.  They also talk at length about Meagan, and what to do about finding her.

Drake mentions the lead he had gotten from his contact, and when he mentions the name “Diggles” Gareth snaps to attention.  He knew a dealer named Diggles, back in the late 80s, during the height of his heroin addiction.  This guy, actually Mark-something, was a notorious idiot with a strange business model – he wanted to be the “Dominoes delivery guy of drugs”.  He had apparently been inspired by some guy in the 70s who ran a grilled-cheese-and-Mary-Jane delivery service, although Diggles had designs to take it beyond Manhattan, to service the whole NY-NJ area, and beyond.

As the group is departing, the young girl at the front of the store comments darkly about some advert on TV:  A famous magician (think David Blaine or Criss Angel), Konstantyn, will be holding a “Christmas Day Massacre” live on NBC in Times Square.  Konstantyn, as it turns out, bears a striking resemblance to Alex, who acknowledges that this is the guy who replaced him and ruined his family.  With this knowledge, they all (except Goom) head for a bar.

After some time at the bar, everyone but Morgan and Gareth notice a kid on a bike pull up outside of the bar and enter.  He’s a character – spiky hair with frosted tips, an oversized puffy coat, basically an idiot.  He approaches a table of college kids, hands them a brown paper bag, and leaves.  When the others comment on the guy, Gareth notes that this seems very much like the fashion that Diggles might have adopted, although the kid is easily 25 years too young to be his old dealer.  Drake questions how someone would have gotten to be so close with the guy who sold him drugs, but Gareth just shrugs it off.

Over the next few days, the group goes about their separate business.  Wally confronts his landlord, Hank, who he knows to be a small time dealer, if he knows a guy named Diggles, and Hank confirms that he does.  He is not, however, on good terms with Diggles, as he has taken a lot of good business from Hank.  When Wally informs him that some people are just interested in talking with him, Hank hands Wally Diggles’ calling card – a sticker with a pot leaf on it, a phone number, and his slogan.  Hank asks if these people are going to teach Diggles a lesson, at which Wally just shrugs.

The group decides to meet outside of their regular meeting time, selecting Aberdeen Park Square, an open public area, to have a picnic and discuss new developments.  Wally offers up the sticker, and Drake calls the number, smarming his way through a series of lower level guys until he speaks to the man himself.  He tells Diggles that he’s interested in “starting a franchise” and wishes to speak with him.  Diggles, all the while spouting off forced thug-speak, agrees to meet him the next evening… at the very same park they are sitting in now.  Drake agrees and, ending the call, lets everyone know.  A message is sent to Goom in the usual way.

So the next day, there they all are again, though not together.  Goom is feigning sleep on a park bench, curled under a blanket.  At the appointed time, a black Escalade with pot-leaf spinner rims and underbody lighting pulls up.  A large guy steps out of the car and waits by the open door.  Drake approaches and indicates he is the guy who called, and Diggles (who is inside the Escalade) says that he wants Drake to get in so that they aren’t seen talking in public.  Drake refuses, as he’s not sure what Diggles, or more importantly one of his two overlarge body guards, might do.  Diggles goes through some show of pulling a gun and waving it around, but Drake doesn’t move.  They go back and forth about the matter for some time, ultimately culminating in Diggles actually shooting at Drake. 

Shooting at him – not actually shooting into him.  Diggles has a thing about firing his gun sideways, which kills his aim.  Drake dodges and runs around the vehicle for cover, and that’s when all hell breaks loose.

From under the blanket, Goom brings out a M-16 assault rifle and expertly fires a single shot into the Escalade’s engine block, killing the ride.  Diggles and his goons flee, wildly firing shots behind them.

Gareth, Morgan, and Wally scatter, returning to their own homes.  Drake, shaken, similarly makes tracks.  Goom, with his rifle… disappears.  Alex, however, who has been sitting in a Starbucks across the street, takes out his phone and calls 911, staying on the phone with the dispatcher until authorities arrive.

Changeling: Session 1

We've started a new game, now that Deadlands has come to an end.  The same group of players is now wading into a modern-age game using White Wolf's New World of Darkness Changeling: The Lost rules.  I've taken on the task of writing the session recaps, as our GM liked it so much when S.P. did them for Deadlands.

It is definitely weird, being in the Now, with cars, and cell phones, and other lines of communication beyond telegrams, letters, and shouting, as we've been stuck in the 1870s for the past two years.

Every Thursday night at 10:00, a support group for abduction victims meets in the basement of a church in Manhattan.  These aren’t your run of the mill abductees (if there really is such a thing) these people have stories that are strange.  Off.

A young woman named Meagan – Rule #1: no last names – runs the group.  She’s a wild child, a lone wolf, never content to stay in one place for very long, although she’s been heading up this group for the past several years.

Also in the group:  A young woman named Morgan who favours the Gypsy styles that go along with her chosen profession of fortune telling.  Wallace (Wally), a Korean kid who works the over-night shift at a 24-hour CVS pharmacy and has a scary aptitude for science.  Gareth, a skinny freelance artist with a history of drug use and the track marks to show for it.  New to the group are Alex, a guy who works odd jobs, primarily in the janitorial sector, and is looking for the daughter he left behind when he was taken, and Drake, a dark and smarmy fellow who works as a private accountant.  There’s also a strange fellow known only as Goom, who works at the church cleaning things.  He’s quiet and suspicious, always cautioning the others to live off the grid and under the radar so that They won’t find them.

Meetings progress about as normally as these things do.  People share stories of daily struggles and small triumphs.  Alex had a panic attack at work and had to spend the rest of his shift cleaning toilets.  Gareth just had a mildly successful art show in the Village.  Meagan shares  that a former member of the group, a fellow now known as Michael “Mickey” O’Shannahan, recently committed suicide.  He had been close to Meagan, sort of a sponsor.  Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he’d been medicated until recently, though it was debatable whether that was truly effective.

The group all acknowledges that they know they were replaced in their old lives by Others.  Others who look like them, who sound like them, who have taken over whatever it was they each were doing at the time they were taken.  Others whose existence means that they can each never go back to what they used to have, can never be who or what they were before.  Others who, it must be admitted, are all far more successful than those that were taken might ever have been, abduction or no. 

Are they mad?  Of course, some of them are.  But not all of them are filled with the venom that Drake seems to have.

Three weeks into our story, Meagan announces that she’s ending her time in NYC and handing over the group to Morgan, the next most senior member.  Meagan will be shipping off with a “School at Sea” to teach photography.

The next week, the first without Meagan, the group convenes at the church as normal.  When they go into the meeting room, however, an unsettling sight greets them:  Scattered maliciously about the room are several copies of seven photographs, all of Meagan.  One of them, on the seat she usually occupied, has had the eyes cut out and black permanent marker scribbled across her mouth.  Turning the photograph over, they find “TOUCHED” scrawled in permanent marker.  None of the other pictures have been vandalised.

The group discusses whether or not to call the police, ultimately deciding against it, because what would they say?  There’s also a healthy amount of paranoia among the group, which helps sway that vote.  Gareth collects one of each photo, as well as the defaced one, and tucks them into his ever present sketch book.  Others take some of the photos as well.

It is decided not to hold group tonight, as they don’t know what might be lurking around.  Everyone makes their way out of the building and up to the street.

That’s when the bus explodes.

The #7 bus goes up like a torch, spewing scraps of white hot metal and debris into the air.  The fire is hot, so hot, and all the bystanders in the area (including, of course, our wayward foundlings) scatter.  They notice that it is not all entirely bus materials, some of it is biological.

With emergency sirens starting to scream in the distance, Wally finds himself grabbed and pulled into an alley – he takes a wild swing that misses before he realises that it is Goom.  Goom mutters something about keeping low and not letting anyone find them before he ultimately disappears into the shadows, presumably going back to wherever it is that Goom lives.

The group all return to their respective abodes, keeping close watch on the news.  Over the next several hours, nothing of note is said.  The word “terrorism” is never directly stated, although the officials suspect it is an intentional bombing, and they are closing the harbour, bridges, and airports, and are looking for multiple suspects.

Initiation

So we're inducting a bunch of n00bs into roleplaying tonight.  This is going to be awesome.

Recently, a few friends had approached M'Colleague, expressing an interest in tabletop RPGs, as they had honestly never encountered them ever, aside from whatever cultural osmosis.  Having had gaming as a part of my life for ages, this is an exceedingly foreign thing to me. 

Of course, sitting down to play tonight will be just as foreign, if not moreso, to our mates.  This hit me hardest when, just a bit ago, I observed M'Colleague scanning the character sheets and setting aside the specific die types each new player will need.  Of course!  Presenting them with our jar o' dice and letting them rummage through it is one approach, but as this is meant to be an educational evening, it seems appropriate to say, "Here are the tools you need [dice and character sheets] let's take it from here."  If the game continues and levelling happens, along with the acquisition of bigger and better weaponry, dice rummaging can happen.

We're breaking them in with a 1st level 4th Edition D&D game that, according to M'Colleague, was partly inspired by that Red Riding Hood movie that came out a couple years ago.  While I can't recommend it purely for the story (it was just too cliché for my taste) the setting and atmosphere is really great, and I'm excited to see what comes of the game.

The players described what they wanted to play and characters have been pre-generated from there.  One wanted to play Arwen Undomiel, and she's ended up with an Eladrin Warlord.  Another wanted to also play an Elf, but to be a magic user, and good with the fightings; she'll be a Hexblade.  Our third newbie spotted Sir Bearington in a forum post and was inspired.  He's ended up with a Longtooth Shifter Druid.

I'll also be playing, since S.P. is running.  I was on the fence on what I should do.  The party already has a Leader, Striker, and Controller, so we were in need of a Defender.  I want to be helpful, but I also want to try something new.  And, let's be honest, I want to mess with my friends a little, because that's always fun.  So I drew up a Paladin.

A Pixie Paladin.

A Pixie Paladin who is pretty much a literal interpretation of Sunflash from The Mighty Boosh's Future Sailors live tour.  M'Colleague let everyone pick Themes and Backgrounds, so I took the theme of Seer (he's from the fyoocha after all) and the background Born On Another Plane (from a planet called Camden, in another dimension).  Check out Noel Fielding in glammy action as Sunflash here:

 Yeah, I'm a dick.